Gifts: Bone Gnawers
The Bone Gnawers Gifts Spirits in service to or allied with a tribe's totem teach Tribal Gifts. Some tribes' Gifts haven't changed in centuries, while others (such as the Glass Walkers) regularly reinvent their relationship with the spirits. Learning a Gift from another tribe usually requires the Garou to be on good terms with at least one member of the tribe (generally a packmate) who can summon the appropriate spirit. Even then, the Garou must convince the spirit she is worthy of its blessings, and that she won't turn them against its tribal allies. Some Garou are extremely touchy about outsiders learning their tribal blessings, while others believe the practice strengthens the Garou Nation as a whole in its war against the Wyrm. The Bone Gnawers are survivors without peer, and Rat's blessings help make this so. Rank 1 Cooking The Bone Gnawer takes up a small pot (an old coffee can will do) and a spoon, and fills it with whatever he can find -- cigarette butts, beer cans, old newspapers, dead leaves, whatever -- adds water (spit will do), and stirs. The result is a pasty and bland-tasting, but filling and nutritious mush. A raccoon-spirit teaches this Gift. System: The player rolls Wits + Survival (difficulty 6). The resulting meal feeds one person per success. Desperate Strength The werewolf calls on desperate reserves for a sudden surge of strength. A badger-spirit teaches this Gift. System: When rolling a Feat of Strength, the werewolf may add one die to the roll for each level of bashing damage he willingly accepts as the price of this Gift. Resist Toxin The werewolf's body is hardened against toxins of all sorts. A rat-spirit teaches this Gift. System: The werewolf is permanently immunized to mundane poisons, from arsenic to alcohol, and adds three dice to resist the effects of Wyrm-enhanced toxins. This Gift may be turned off and on at will (such as for enjoying alcohol). Scent of Sweet Honey A target the Garou touched at some point during the last hour begins to exude a wonderfully sweet aroma, and becomes slightly sticky to the touch. All manner of vermin quickly appear and coat the victim. The resulting coat of gnats, flies, bees and beetles crawls, stings, and generally impairs vision and hearing. Insect-spirits teach this Gift. System: The player spends one Gnosis point and rolls Wits + Subterfuge (difficulty 7). The target suffers a –1 penalty to all actions for one hour per success; the smell will not wash off during this time. Trash is Treasure The refuse of humanity provides all the canny Bone Gnawer needs. Through the use of this Gift, any broken object can be temporarily restored to full functionality and usefulness. A raccoon-spirit teaches this Gift. System: The player takes hold of a broken object and rolls Wits + Crafts. The object functions perfectly for one turn per success, and also supplies its own power, fuel, or ammunition -- a dull knife cuts, a busted microwave runs (without being plugged into anything), an old rusty Saturday night special fires even without bullets, a junked car starts up and runs. The lifespan of the object's renewed usefulness can be extended to one full day by spending a point of Willpower, but the object requires proper power, fuel, and ammunition in such circumstances. Rank 2 Between the Cracks Urban blight is the very underbelly of the Wyrm, and the Bone Gnawers know it better than any other tribe. The werewolf's instincts guide him to the nearest barren spot within an urban area -- a place where no human has set foot in at least a week, one which is not only isolated and currently unoccupied, but also likely to remain so for the rest of the night. This may be a boarded-up, abandoned building, a vacant apartment, or even a dead subway station. Bone Gnawers find this Gift useful for securing ritual spaces, setting up ambushes while preserving the Litany, and finding a place to sleep for the night. Any urban spirit can teach this Gift. System: The player spends a point of Willpower and rolls Wits + Streetwise (difficulty 5). The more successes, the more secluded and difficult-to-locate the destination will be. Blissful Ignorance The Garou can become completely invisible to all senses, spirits or monitoring devices by remaining still. A chameleon-spirit teaches this Gift. System: The player rolls Stamina + Stealth (difficulty 5). Each success subtracts one success from the Perception + Alertness rolls of those looking for the character. If no one is actively seeking the werewolf, one success provides perfect concealment. Cornered Rat’s Ferocity When backed into a corner with nowhere to run, there are only two options -- beg for mercy or turn and fight. Rat-spirits teach Bone Gnawers to excel at the latter. System: The player spends one Rage point and rolls Rage (difficulty 8). Each success grants the character an additional die to his Brawl pools for the rest of the combat. This Gift sends the Bone Gnawer into an automatic and unavoidable berserk frenzy; any magic that stops the frenzy also ends the Gift. Guise of the Hound The Bone Gnawer masks herself so that she blends into the urban landscape, disguising her Lupus form so that it appears as a large dog rather than a wolf. Despite its enormous utility, most other tribes spurn this Gift as degrading to the dignity of the Garou. A dog-spirit teaches this Gift. System: The player rolls Manipulation + Subterfuge (difficulty 7). The disguise lasts for one scene per success. Odious Aroma The Bone Gnawer can amplify his natural musk until it incapacitates his foes. A stinkbug-spirit teaches this Gift. System: The player spends one point of Gnosis. For the duration of the scene, all beings other than the werewolf and her packmates that can smell and are within 20 feet (6 m) of the Garou subtract two from all dice pools as they fight to breathe. Rank 3 Call the Rust By whistling softly through his teeth, the werewolf can summon sudden and destructive rust onto any metal within his immediate vicinity. Guns corrode and jam, knives crumble, and cars become flaking hunks of junk. This Gift is taught by a water elemental. System: The player spends a point of Gnosis and rolls Wits + Crafts, with a difficulty depending on the amount of metal being corroded. A gun or knife would be difficulty 6, while a car might be difficulty 8. Gift of the Skunk With this Gift, the Garou can swell his musk glands, allowing him to spray musk like a skunk. It is, of course, taught by a skunk-spirit. System: The spray is directed with a Dexterity + Primal-Urge roll (difficulty 7, maximum range of 10 feet). A target struck by this attack must spend a Willpower point to do anything but spend the first turn retching. Afterwards, he subtracts one from his dice pools for the rest of the scene for every two successes rolled. Immersion in water negates this Gift, and it is ineffective against targets with no sense of smell. Gift of the Termite The Bone Gnawer can cause wood and paper to rot with astonishing speed. Furniture falls apart, documents disintegrate, and buildings may even collapse. A termite-spirit teaches this Gift. System: The player spends one Gnosis point and rolls Intelligence + Crafts (difficulty 7). One success can rot a ream of paper, three can destroy a wall, and five can collapse the roof of a small building. Laugh of the Hyena Hyena follows no one; instead, she laughs at those who would name themselves kings. The Bone Gnawer wields the power of this mocking laughter, allowing her to resist any attempt to command, cajole, force, or demand to do anything she doesn't wish to. Such refusals are never subtle; the werewolf cackles like a hyena when calling upon this Gift. A hyena-spirit teaches it. System: All attempts to mentally compel the werewolf suffer a +2 difficulty penalty, so long as she laughs out loud at them. Reshape Object The Garou can shape once-living (though not undead) material into something else instantly. Trees may become shelter, buck antlers spears, animal hides armor, and flowers sweet perfumes. The item will resemble the object from which it was created (e.g., the aforementioned spear will be made of antler, not wood). A Pattern Spider teaches this Gift. System: The player rolls Manipulation + Crafts against a difficulty defined by the scope and complexity of the transformation (a broken tree limb into a spear would be difficulty 5, while a fallen tree into a canoe would be 8) and spends a Gnosis point. The transformation persists for one scene per success, or permanently with five or more successes. Expending an additional Gnosis point allows a created weapon to inflict aggravated damage for the remainder of the scene in which it is created. Rank 4 Attunement The werewolf may commune with the spirits of a city or town and gain information about the area from them, including a rough population estimate, enclaves of Garou or other beings, and any secret tunnels. This Gift doesn't function in the wilderness, since the Bone Gnawers have lost the knack for conversing with such spirits easily. A rat-spirit teaches this Gift. System: The player spends one point of Gnosis and rolls Perception + Streetwise (difficulty 6). The amount and accuracy of the information depend on the number of successes rolled. Blink The Bone Gnawer can duck into a shaded area (an open dumpster, a dark alley, beneath a parked car) and pop out in another shaded area some distance away. A rat-spirit teaches this Gift. System: The player spends one Gnosis point and rolls Manipulation + Stealth (difficulty 6). The character can reappear in any shaded area within (number of successes x 20) yards (18 m per success). Infest The Bone Gnawer summons a horde of vermin to invade a structure no bigger than a large building. The Gift summons any kind of vermin common to the area -- usually a lively variety of insects, slugs and rodents. The vermin behave according to their natural instincts, generally settling down for permanent infestation rather than attacking humans. Any vermin-spirit can teach this Gift. System: The player spends one Gnosis point and rolls Manipulation + Animal Ken (difficulty 7). One success warrants an immediate call to an exterminator, five makes the building completely uninhabitable for quite some time. Rank 5 Riot The werewolf summons a horde of malevolent spirits to provoke the inhabitants of a city into violent rioting. The Gift plays on the hatred and fear of the down-and-outs of the city: The poor, the homeless, immigrants, and others the citizenry would rather not acknowledge. The Gnawer can direct the riot to a limited degree. A rat-spirit teaches this Gift. System: The player spends one Gnosis point and rolls Wits + Subterfuge (difficulty 8). If successful, the spirits direct their hosts against a target of the Garou's choice -- though things tend to escalate and spin out of control easily. The riot engulfs an area with a radius of one mile per success rolled. Survivor The werewolf becomes an ultimate survivor, with no need of food, water or sleep. She ignores temperature extremes, natural diseases, and poisons. Wyrm toxins have only half their normal effect on her. A tortoise-spirit teaches this Gift. System: The player spends one Gnosis point and rolls Stamina + Survival. The effects last for one day per success. By spending a second Gnosis point, the character can gain three extra points of Stamina, and suffers no wound penalties, but the Gift will prematurely expire 10 rounds later. The Garou must sleep for at least eight hours when the Gift wears off, and he awakens ravenously hungry.